Abstract

We propose here a single setup for the implementation of all possible positive operator value measurements (POVMs) of a single‐photon polarization state. This includes POVMs with orthogonal projective, non‐orthogonal projective, and non‐projective sets of Kraus operators. Our setup is deterministic as opposed to probabilistic, which means that the setup delivers one of the possible POVM output states in every measurement. Furthermore our method does not require any ancillas except for vacuum states. Finally we illustrate how our setup can be used to implement two well‐known POVMs, including one required for established quantum cryptography protocols [1, 2, 3, 4].